


Connect to Name

by BlackBlood1872



Series: Between Worlds [1]
Category: Bleach, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Present Tense, What-if Scenario, i have no idea what genre this is actually, pretty much just a long drabble, will change later when i figure that out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-23 22:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4895248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBlood1872/pseuds/BlackBlood1872
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you were to ask any human what country was the biggest magnet for the strange, they would say the United States. <em>Everything</em> strange happened in the USA. Superheroes in New York, for example. Alien attacks and geniuses and super soldiers; if anything crazy was happening, it was happening in New York.</p><p>So maybe it wasn't a coincidence that Starrk and Lilynette found themselves there. They followed the reishi, and that was where it led, for better or for worse.</p><p>[Or; the Bleach/Avengers crossover I can't believe no one's written yet.]</p><p>[The second chapter is no where near finished. Sorry.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connect to Name

Despite everything he might have said to that Shinigami captain, he has never wanted to die. To die is to be alone in the next life, when his purified soul moves onto Soul Society. Lilynette has always been a part of him, half of his own soul, and if he dies, they'll be one again. They'll just be him, or whatever form his singular soul will take once all the others he's eaten are freed.

He doesn't want to die. And perhaps Fate, if Fate has a form, decides that he has the short end of the stick, bleeding out on a crumbling building in a fake town. So, in his dying moments, something pushes him to act.

And he does.

A Garganta opens as he limply flicks his wrist, and with a strength he doesn't know he still has, Coyote Starrk pulls himself through it, leaving for the sands of Hueco Mundo without anyone the wiser.

* * *

Hueco Mundo has always been the place Hollows reside in and return to. The reason for this is the high concentration of reishi in the air – in everything. The air, the sand, the trees; everything in the Forest and the Desert is made of reishi, and Starrk breathes it in deeply. His wounds heal, slowly at first, then quicker, and Lilynette stirs from where she lays for the first time in days. He's been conscious, mostly, since the battle, but once out of Resurrección, they are two again, and the stress of battle never was something Lilynette could take without having to rest.

When she wakes, and he's healed, they leave their spot in the sand, heading somewhere unknown, but away from Las Noches.

They won't be going back there. Even if Aizen wins – even if he dies. That's not their home anymore.

Their home is each other, as it's always been, and they don't need a building to have that.

* * *

The Human World is large. Most spirits target the places with the highest amount of reishi, and most of the time, those places are in Japan. That doesn't mean, however, that it's _only_ in Japan.

When Starrk feels tired enough of the eternal night and endless desert of Hueco Mundo, they venture back into the Human World.

His Garganta leads to the edge of Karakura town, as it still is and will probably always be the biggest source of reishi in the realm. It makes travel between the worlds so much easier, even if Starrk and Lilynette have to hide their reiatsu and Sonido away the second they appear. He hopes, vaguely, that none of the survivors of the war remain close enough to have noticed their arrival.

Either way, it would be better if they don't stick around. And, to be honest? Japan is getting tiresome. They're due for a change in scenery.

* * *

If you were to ask any human what country was the biggest magnet for the strange, they would say the United States. So many supernatural movies were based there, and, outside of film, strange things were common.

Superheroes in New York, for example. Alien attacks and geniuses and super soldiers; if anything crazy was happening, it was happening in New York.

So maybe it isn't a coincidence that Starrk and Lilynette find themselves here. They followed the reishi, and this is where it led, for better or for worse.

* * *

New York is a loud and bustling place, and the two of them quickly grow overwhelmed. It helps, a little, that so few people can actually see them. Finding places to sleep is easy when no one complains about street rats in deserted buildings. The few that can see them almost always brush it off as a hallucination and walk away with mutters of 'more experimental gas leaks'. Whatever that means.

Starrk wonders if he should look into the history of this country, and maybe the recent news. In the end, he and Lilynette camp out in a public library, with him reading up on everything he can and Lilynette listening to audio tapes.

She's quiet, at least, when she's distracted by the technology.

* * *

The good thing about being dead is that you no longer need to use mortal languages.

Sure, when a spiritually aware person hears you, they hear your words in their native tongue. It's how it works and it makes things easier, Starrk thinks as he pours over the books. It also means that the opposite is true, and everything he reads makes sense, even if he's never seen words going horizontal or from left to right. The characters, at least, are familiar enough – while the Japanese use their kanji most, the Latin script does show up on occasion.

Later, once they've moved to the more dusty and deserted part of the library and Lilynette finds an item called a "television", Starrk is treated to the Human's understanding of "ghost language". The garbled voices are similar to the sounds the more animalistic Hollows make, though the ones in the movies don't actually make sense to the either of them.

Starrk suspects, in some distant corner of his mind that's starting to understand these strange human ways, that if he were to listen to the words _backwards_ , he might understand them.

But he doesn't really care, not as long as Lilynette has fun and can still laugh her way through months of episodes of the various shows the library has stocked up.

(At some point, later on, he wonders where she found all the tapes about a time- and space-traveling alien, but brushes it off. The show is oddly compelling, even if he'll never say so out loud.)

* * *

The first time they meet is rather by chance, and Starrk doesn't know what to make of it.

Lilynette had seen the building first, but he wasn't far behind – it's hard to miss the giant tower, with battle damage and a large A on the side. _Stark Tower_ the little sign at the front tells them, and Lilynette is tugging at him to hurry up before he can completely process that. They enter the building to see bright chrome and an almost futuristic design and Starrk is intrigued.

So they go higher. They don't worry about the stairs or the elevator, and instead let themselves walk through ceilings and walls like the ghosts they are. The first twenty floors are boring; office spaces and a few labs where the scientists stare at glowing lights and take notes. Neither Starrk nor Lilynette liked being around Szayel or his lab, so they avoid these areas now, going higher into the building to escape them.

They end up in a living room that's completely different from the rest of the tower, and set about exploring it.

Here, there are large windows that take up an entire wall, with a table that can be compared to the one from Las Noches standing by it. Through an archway that works like a door, there are couches and chairs across from a wall with what Starrk can only assume is a more advanced version of the television from the library. It's large and flat and sleek, and Lilynette rushes to gush over it the second she sees it.

Starrk feels like he should be worried about her fascination. But, there's no real harm in it, as long as she doesn't complain about not being able to have one when they inevitably return to Hueco Mundo. Until that happens, he'll let her have her fun.

(And if it and all the other strange Human things intrigue him too? Well, she never has to know.)

* * *

Tony Stark is a pragmatic man. He believes in science and knows that with a little digging, everything can be solved by it. The appearance of Thor and his psychotic brother put a wrench in his theory, but he remembers someone saying that "magic is just a science we don't understand yet".

He doesn't remember who said that, but figures it's true enough. If things like aliens and gods actually exist, then magic must too and there's always a way to explain everything. Even if he himself doesn't have the explanations.

So he's pragmatic, but he's also open minded and after saving the world so many times, he likes to believe that he can take just about any surprise the world tries to throw at him.

As it is, it's a little bit difficult to be okay with coming around a corner and seeing two strange people examining his living room. This part of the tower is where he and his teammates live while in New York, and he has it so well guarded _Shield_ doesn't even try to come uninvited. Jarvis has a constant watch on the exits and never fails to inform him when one of the Avengers stops by.

And yet, here are two strangers, with not one word from his AI.

"Jarvis," he says quietly as he ducks back into his lab.

"Sir?" the AI responds, just as loud as usual, but Tony knows only those in this room can hear him.

"Why are there two unknowns in my flat and why didn't you tell me?" Tony asks, voice unintentionally sharp.

"Sir, there is no one else on this level of the building," the AI reports, sounding somewhat confused. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine," Tony waves this off, peeking around the corner again and frowning as he catches sight of the girl now lounging on the back of his couch like a cat. The man with her shakes his head with a sigh before continuing to peer at his entertainment system.

"No, I can see them pretty clearly. I don't think I would be able to imagine something like this."

If he _had_ tried to conjure up imaginary intruders, they wouldn't look like this pair. For one, the man is dressed in the oddest clothes – a Japanese shihakusho, he believes in the term, even though it has a Western look to it – and the girl's wearing barely anything at all. No matter _how_ much of a playboy he is, he's _never_ thought of anyone underage like that.

"I will do another scan of the floor, then," Jarvis responds. Tony waits a minute, then soundlessly taps his foot against the floor. "You are still the only person on this floor, but there is an anomaly in the form of an unexplained electromagnetic field."

An EMF? Tony glances back into the room, speculative. He's seen the TV shows, those "ghost adventures", and an EMF detector is what they always use to "find spirits". Because apparently souls have an electromagnetic charge.

Tony figures that's a good enough explanation for why Jarvis seems to think these two don't exist, even if he doesn't believe it himself. In any case, he can see them and they look real enough, so he steps out of his cover and saunters into his living room.

"Good afternoon," he greets, grinning when the girl flails off the couch with a scream. The man turns to him and raises an eyebrow.

"Greetings," the man murmurs, eyeing Tony calculatingly, and Tony tries not to fidget. _He's_ not the intruder here.

"How'd you get into my living room?" Tony asks, forcefully pushing past any nervousness this man brought out in him.

The two – the girl peeking from behind the couch – glance at each other.

"'In-tru-da window'," the girl quotes suddenly, horrible accent included, then hides behind the couch with a giggle. The man sighs again.

Tony lets out a startled laugh. Who would have guessed that ghosts or spirits or whatever these two are, would be into British television?

"We were exploring the building," the man tells him once he has Tony's attention again. He's leaning against the wall now with his hands in his pockets, looking half asleep. "We must have gone too high up."

"Must have," Tony agrees under his breath. He looks between the two again, eyes the girl suspiciously as she plays with a random ornament, and comes to a decision. They haven't harmed him yet, and they act nothing like the ghosts in the movies, so he'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

He strides over to where the man is standing, ignores how he tenses and the girl is suddenly still, and hold out his hand. "I'm Tony Stark."

The man looks at his hand bemusedly for a moment, eyes blank, before he blinks. Slowly, as if he's afraid of something bad happening, he takes Tony's hand.

(Inwardly, they both feel relief when nothing comes of the touch.)

"Coyote Starrk," the man replies with a slight smirk.

Tony just blinks at him. Well. Who would have thought.

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been sitting on my hard drive since... July or so. I figured I should put it somewhere since I do actually like this. It's going to be the first in a series of crossover fics, since I keep writing them and I figure I should do something with them other than let them collect dust in a buried file.  
> Yes, there are two very obvious DW references in this story.  
> Also, there's a bit more to this, I just don't have it very cleaned up and the stuff I have typed starts halfway into a conversation. But this is pretty much the gist of the crossover.


End file.
